Substantiating promising technical solutions for turbo- expander power plants based on the research into working processes and states

Abstract

One of the most rational methods of energy utilization of compressed gas in pipelines is to use turbo-expander installations. In particular, these are autonomous turbo-expander power stations. A fundamentally new concept has been devised to improve the technical and economic performance of this type of machines. This concept is not focused on a separate aspect of the plant's operation but on their entire set. In particular, physical principles, structures, and technologies were considered as an object of research. First, effective parameters of gas-dynamic flows and heat-mass transfer were determined based on the modeling of work processes. Secondly, progressive designs of turbo-expander units have been created. Thirdly, technologies for the production of parts and assemblies of turbo-expander units have been developed, which combine, unlike the traditional ones, different types of strengthening for contacting parts in their pair. A method of parametric modeling was used to substantiate the technical solutions of the elements of turbo-expander power plants. This makes it possible to determine the technical characteristics of these installations under a certain set of parameters. By purposeful variation, a recommended set of their parameters was determined, which ensure the improvement of the most important technical characteristics. A specialized database was built, which contains an array of information about the regularities of the influence of variation of significant parameters on various characteristics of turbo-expander power plants. Already on this basis, the problems of synthesis of successful technical solutions of turbo-expander power plants are solved. As a result, their high energy efficiency is ensured. Thus, the efficiency of the expander was achieved at the level of 86 % while the resource increased by 20–25 %. All these solutions were implemented in a number of unique turbo-expander units. Their effectiveness has been demonstrated during operation